Minnesota History Magazine Spring 2017 (65:5)

Anna Gilbertson and the Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimages after World War I by Susan Schrader

Penumbra Theatre: 40 Years of Nurturing a Black Performing Arts Community by Kate Roberts

The Voice of Progress: A Conflicted Message of Resistance in the White Earth Reservation’s First Newspaper by Alex Klein

ARTICLES

Anna Gilbertson and the Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimages after World War I

by Susan Schrader

A decade after the end of World War I, the federal government sponsored an all-expenses-paid program to take bereaved women to grieve at the European graves of their fallen soldiers. One Minnesota mother’s pilgrimage illuminates the experience of other World War I Gold Star mothers and widows.

Penumbra Theatre: 40 Years of Nurturing a Black Performing Arts Community

by Kate Roberts

Founded in 1976 in St. Paul, Penumbra today is the country’s largest and preeminent African American theater company. Its history is portrayed on these pages and in the MNHS exhibit Penumbra Theatre at 40: Art, Race, and a Nation on Stage, on view through July 30, 2017.

The Voice of Progress: A Conflicted Message of Resistance in the White Earth Reservation’s First Newspaper

by Alex Klein

A pioneering example of American Indian journalism offers a unique glimpse into the mixed allegiances of its publisher and editor, mixed–blood cousins Augustus and Theodore Beaulieu, who not only spoke on behalf of the reservation but also exploited it.

DEPARTMENTS

Eyewitness

Bonnie Wilson wonders about a fishy photo of well-dressed anglers from the late nineteenth century.

Landmarks

Linda James spotlights the one-time world headquarters of Krank’s, “Perfumers and Markers of High Grade Toilet Requisites,” located on University Avenue in St. Paul.

Back Space

A gathering of reviews, your letters, news and notes, and a new feature, Our Back Pages, which mines the archives of Minnesota History

Book Reviews

The Ford Century in MinnesotaTake Three

Letters

News & Notes

Our Back Pages

About the cover…

Anna Gilbertson of Owatonna was one of 6,500 American women who participated in the Gold Star mothers and widows pilgrimages of 1930–33. She visited the grave of her son, Pvt. Arthur Gilbertson, at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fere-en-Tardenois, France, in June 1933. Photo courtesy Susan Schrader.